Another problem with Parks

I had a fairly negative experience with Parks - with Jeff Parks himself, as a matter of fact. I want to let other people know, as this seems to be a pattern. This isn't a witch hunt, or anything else, but I feel that his behavior is reprehensible and people should know what he's capable of.

Excerpted from my Arc-Wave review thread, over on FX-Sabers:

Though I didn't buy this blade from Jeff Parks himself, rather from Chowser (who is an excellent seller, by the way, highly recommended), I sent Jeff a message telling him what I thought of the blade and the hilt, and it was very complimentary. *He replied, and we had some good discussion about the design of the hilt, and such, and when I had a question, I'd ask, and he would always reply within hours. *He was a nice guy to deal with, at least until this happened:

*


Next to a Luke MR for brightness

That's correct, all but six of the LEDs failed. *I emailed Jeff, asking him what the deal was. *He said to check the batteries, which I did, then he told me to send it in for repair. *I posted it on FX-Sabers and was told by an eminent sabersmith on those boards that a dead battery would not cause this type of failure. *Ok, whatever. *I sent it in, and got Jeff to take a look at it; he told me he'd never seen such a bad failure before, and he'd have his engineer diagnose the problem. *

Ok. *I waited a few days, and asked Jeff what the deal was, and he said he'd need a week to look at it. *I gave him two, and when no reply came back, I sent him another message. *He informed me it was a battery problem. *Uh huh. *Right. *Remember, I haven't had my blade for a month, just a useless - but pretty - battery case/hilt. *So, I told him to send it back, but I wasn't paying return shipping, because he hadn't fixed anything. *This is what he had to say.

This will be my last email on this subject.

You may pay $10.00 return shipping via. mail.

The mailing address is shown below.

I will accept the following:

1. Cash / M.O.
2. Check.

If paid by check, I will wait for the check to clear before mailing your blade.


DO NOT EMAIL ME!

If you send a return email, I will completely terminate our relationship, regardless of blade status.

If you call or mail any form of "comments," I will completely terminate our relationship, regardless of blade status.

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Uh, I'm sorry? *"I will completely terminate our relationship, regardless of blade status?" *He essentially told me he was going to commit fraud if I did so much as email him back. *I asked a sabersmith on the FX-Sabers forums what to do, and we agreed that $10.00 in shipping wouldn't be the end of the world, and if the blade didn't work, I could send it to this smith to get it repaired, seing as how Jeff informed me that I was no longer allowed to speak to him. *So I paid the shipping, and the blade came back, and lo and behold, it worked! *However, there were tool marks on the emitter plug, and the board was noticeably loose in the blade, which it hadn't been before. *

So, he took a month to do one of the following:
1. Do nothing but put tool marks on the plug, test the batteries, then tell me the batteries were the problem.
2. Repair the blade, then lie and make it seem like my fault.
3. Send me a completely different blade (which I doubt) then lie and make it seem like my fault.

This type of behavior really surprised me coming from a man who is very well respected on these boards. *Perhaps he had a bad day, and I was just the first person he interacted with, or something. In any case, I got the blade back, but I wanted to let potential customers know that he's capable of this. Though I may choose to purchase another of his designs someday, I will not deal with Jeff Parks personally in the future.

Yeah, Mr. Parks seems to have a history of being quite not nice, even bordering on crazy at times. Sorry you had a bad experience, you definitely haven't been the only one.

Years ago, his people damaged a very rare MPP flash that was on loan to him by a member here for replication and those damaged parts got replaced with replicas. That member got about the same response you got, never got remunerated, just crazy and angry responses.

(EDIT: I've bought from Parks before also, but all communication was through his assistant.)

If memory serves.

The people copying the MPP in China damaged it and Park sent back to the loner other parts.

Let's get the accusiation correct if were going to start another witch hunt.

But if you want to consider the number of people he has sold to and the FACT that not EVERY transaction goes perfect, maybe you over-reacted.

So you got your item back fixed for free and you're still complaining.

Wow.

Wow. Two replies and we've got a fight.

Let's see - did you even read my post? He threatened to commit fraud and steal my item which I'd already paid for, and then was rude and childish, forbidding a paying customer from even so much as speaking to him? That's very, VERY poor business practice, and I feel that others should know about it.

If memory serves.

Hehe, you said the same thing in 2008 about all the orders Parks goes through and how they can't all be perfect, mic. Good consistency, I admire that.

Thank you for refreshing my memory though. I've edited my post accordingly.

Jm419 said:

I had a fairly negative experience with Parks -
Though I didn't buy this blade from Jeff Parks himself, rather from Chowser (who is an excellent seller, by the way, highly recommended), I sent Jeff a message telling him what I thought of the blade and the hilt, and it was very complimentary. *He replied, and we had some good discussion about the design of the hilt, and such, and when I had a question, I'd ask, and he would always reply within hours. *He was a nice guy to deal with, at least until this happened:

This type of behavior really surprised me coming from a man who is very well respected on these boards. *Perhaps he had a bad day, and I was just the first person he interacted with, or something. In any case, I got the blade back, but I wanted to let potential customers know that he's capable of this. Though I may choose to purchase another of his designs someday, I will not deal with Jeff Parks personally in the future.

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He took the time to message you in the past and sounds like you guys had a pretty good relationship going, but it sounds like you insulted him by saying you werent paying return shipping since he didnt fix anything. People have busy lives and you expected him to drop everything to check on a toy.

He took the time to try to fix/inspect your saber and you let $10 get in the way of your friendship or whatever relationship you may have...

and you got your saber back fix for free and then you have the nerve to post personal emails online for everyone to see?

I most certainly do. I'm the customer, and he should treat me more appropriately. Telling me he's going to commit fraudulent conduct on my blade which I've ALREADY PAID FOR and keeping it for a month without bothering to look at it, then telling me I'm completely incorrect about sending it to him, well, that's poor customer service. I never insulted him, and frankly, you should really read my post more carefully before going off half-******.

micdavis said:

If memory serves.

The people copying the MPP in China damaged it and Park sent back to the loner other parts.

Let's get the accusiation correct if were going to start another witch hunt.

But if you want to consider the number of people he has sold to and the FACT that not EVERY transaction goes perfect, maybe you over-reacted.

So you got your item back fixed for free and you're still complaining.

Wow.

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Wow

I see you and I are going to have fun butting heads. I've lurked on RPF for a while and just now starting to really participate. I've noticed you really like to come in guns blazing.

Mic,
1. The saber was returned working... but cosmetically damaged
2. He shouldn't have to pay to fix a faulty product
3. The guy was just being a jerk in his email

Can you honestly say you would have been happy with this exchange?

You didnt buy it from parks, you bought it from Chowser. Parks offered to look at it. Am I missing something? He didnt have to look at your blade unless it comes with a business warranty?

What fraud? by not sending it back because you didnt pay the $10 dollars? Yeah, okay. Tell that to a judge and I guarantee the judge will call you a ******. Companies charge customers shipping and handling for fixing broken products. Some do and some dont.

You got your saber back. Let it go. Is it really worth more headache and arguing with the guy? Is there a way you can repair it yourself without contacting him again?

Wes said:

Wow

Mic,
1. The saber was returned working... but cosmetically damaged
2. He shouldn't have to pay to fix a faulty product
3. The guy was just being a jerk in his email

Can you honestly say you would have been happy with this exchange?

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Micdavis is Blunt...He doesnt soften his blow haha

Also, there are always two sides to a story....We dont know Parks side. He may responded in a jerk way, but we dont know what responses were sent to him in the first place.

Lets not drag the MPP fiasco into this as that issue has been beat to death. If you guys want to debate this, lets stick to Jm419's customer service experience and not relive long past history again and again.

EvilRocketeer said:

Micdavis is Blunt...He doesnt soften his blow haha

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I know, I think he and I will get along just fine....lol

EvilRocketeer said:

Also, there are always two sides to a story....We dont know Parks side. He may responded in a jerk way, but we dont know what responses were sent to him in the first place.

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True...

Art Andrews said:

Lets not drag the MPP fiasco into this as that issue has been beat to death. If you guys want to debate this, lets stick to Jm419's customer service experience and not relive long past history again and again.

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Not a problem. As long as incorrect information isn't tossed out haphazardly.

Parks did not ruin any MPP, others did, he just handled it poorly.

Sorry, but a few problems out of 10000's is just not something that should be bitched about.

Get over it.

I'll happily post the entire conversation here, as several of you have now personally insulted me and claimed that I was the one to cause the problem in the first place. Something we can all agree on is that it's clear that this customer service is reprehensible.

micdavis, next time you spend a lot of money on a prop and it arrives broken and rusting from a sealed package - that's right, it was SEALED, therefore still under WARRANTY - you let me know. I'll come over and be a callous ass and insult you wherever possible.

Then you can get over it. Please refrain from posting in my threads in the future.

EvilRocketeer, you do bring up a good point - I didn't send all the info. The problem was, the case was sealed, so the manufacturer's warranty was in place.

It IS fraud, by the way. It's not appropriate for him to threaten a paying customer and say he'll keep half of the purchase out of spite. We can all agree that's childish.

Cock...

Just out of curiosity, you say that it was working and that you had several emails with Jeff, how long did you have it before it broke? Looking on his site his warrenty is only for 30 days. And if it arrived "broken and rusting from a sealed package" why didn't you immediately require a replacement instead of sending "Jeff a message telling him what I thought of the blade and the hilt, and it was very complimentary" which implies that it was fine based on your first impression.

And I am assuming you are saying he committed fraud because he told you to send it in and then that he would keep it, correct? I'm not quite sure that is Fraud, I'm not seeing deceit in this. Bad customer service maybe, but not deceit. Even by your admission something was done to it (you mention the tool marks, do they look like they may have been from pliers holding the plug so they could pull the outer tube off?)

And I hate to say it, but there are stories all the time of people submitting a warranty claim and then the company deciding the damage was the customer's fault and holding the item until the customer agrees to pay repair and shipping.

WookieGunner, you raise some good questions. Here's what happened.

It did arrive working. However, without any hard play (it's an LED blade, for heaven's sake), the blade began to die more and more quickly, even with fresh batteries. The first time it worked for about eight to ten hours before it needed a recharge, the second time perhaps for six. The third time, it took an hour, and by the fourth time, the blade was noticeably dimmer within ten minutes. I took this to be an electrical problem, so I sent it off.

The hilt, honestly, wasn't that bad when I got it. I was even impressed with the quality of the machining. However, there was some slight rust on the bottom of the emitter lip, but since it was always going to be hidden, I didn't worry about it. It was only once it started to spread - perhaps the steel was oxidizing - that it became a problem.

The fraudulent conduct was that he admitted possession of my blade then refused to send it back to me without me paying for the return shipping, even after he said that he had done nothing to repair it. That's the key - I'd be happy to pay return provided something had been done, but when I said I wasn't paying return shipping I was implying that I expected him to fix it. He refused, and sent me this nasty email forbidding me from speaking to him again. Bad customer service AND fraudulent conduct.

Again, I'd have no problem paying for repairs when it was my fault, but in this case, it was not. I didn't open the saber up, I didn't try to fix it on my own, and I certainly didn't do anything which would warrant such a spectacular failure. No, the product was defective, so I sent it back to him for repairs.

Regardless, it has since been sold, but I wanted others to know of his... reputation before they committed to buy.

You're placing a man's WHOLE reputation on a single incident. As did the previous witch hunt. That's just not right.

Do the math.

Do you expect me to conjure up the 10000's of satisfied customers to demonstrate the counter side of your problem?

What do you hope to accomplish with this thread anyway?

I have just one question: Is this "Chowser" person an authorised Parks reseller? If he isn't, Parks is in no way obligated to honor any alleged warranty issues. It's as simple as that. You should have returned to him, who in turn, should deal with Parks.

Jeff appears to have been very generous in dealing with you directly, considering the product was not purchased from him. Things went south when you refused to pay shipping. Perhaps Jeff responded badly, but he was not entirely in the wrong.

Regardless, a reputable businessman would not make such threats.